Sri Aurobindo

Letters on Poetry and Art

SABCL - Volume 27

Part 2. On His Own and Others’ Poetry
Section 2. On Poets and Poetry
Philosophers, Intellectuals, Novelists and Musicians

Shankaracharya on the Bhagavad Gita [2]

In Shankara’s Bhashya on the Gita it seems he takes any opportunity to thrust in the ideas of कर्मसन्यास [karmasanyāsa] and ज्ञाननिष्ठा [jñānaniṣṭhā]. For example, in the famous shloka कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते [karmaṇyevādhikāraste], the Bhashya speaks of ज्ञाननिष्ठा [jñānaniṣṭhā] though it seems quite irrelevant.

Of course. There is nothing about ज्ञाननिष्ठा [jñānaniṣṭhā] in the text, only in Shankara’s thrust.

Shankara considers all karma useful only as preparation for jñāna. According to him even the object of the Gita is परं निःश्रेयसं संसारस्य अत्यन्तोपरमलक्षणम् [paraṃ niḥśreyasaṃ saṃsārasya atyantoparamalakṣaṇam] .

The object of the Gita was to make Arjuna act, i.e. fight and it is only when he consented to do so that Krishna stopped the discourse. If it had been as Shankara says he would not have stopped until he had got Arjuna well-started for a cave in the Himalayas far away from the noise of the battle.

26 March 1936